More than
1 million Afghan refugees have been deported or voluntarily returned to their
country from neighboring Pakistan and Iran this year in the largest influx of
returnees since the fall of the Taliban regime, the International Organization
for Migration said Wednesday.

While
over 390,000 Afghan refugees voluntarily returned under a U.N. repatriation
initiative, nearly 620,000 undocumented Afghans came from Pakistan and Iran,
which have deported tens of thousands of refugees in recent months. “This is
the highest level since 2002,” said Matthew Graydon, a spokesman for the IOM's
Afghanistan office, referring to the 1 million figure.

In 2002,
nearly 2 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran returned home as
the fall of the Taliban regime raised the prospect of an end to decades of
conflict that had forced millions of Afghans into exile around the world. In
all, between 2002 and 2014, 5.8 million Afghan refugees returned home.

The
number of returnees leveled off in recent years and 2015 saw a mass exodus out
of the country, as nearly 200,000 Afghans fled to Europe amid growing
insecurity and rising unemployment.

The tide
of migration has reversed this year, however, and refugee advocates are warning
that the return of over 1 million Afghans, combined with over 1 million
internal refugees, threatens to create a crisis for a government struggling to
fight a reinvigorated Taliban insurgency.

The
influx "makes a very large figure for a country which is in a volatile
situation when it comes to security and also in terms of economic opportunities
for those to be reabsorbed in a very short time," Laurence Hart, IOM's
chief of mission in Kabul, said during a visit to Washington last week.

There are
1.3 million registered and 1 million undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan.
Iran hosts a little under 1 million registered Afghan refugees and nearly 2
million undocument refugees and Afghan passport holders. Most of
the undocumented refugees came from Iran, which has stepped up its deportation of
Afghans in recent years. IOM data shows that Iran has deported 174,000 Afghans
so far this year, while Pakistan has deported 22,000.

Pakistan
had set a November 15 deadline for the undocumented Afghan refugees and
migrants to either register or face deportation. Islamabad, however, appears to
have allowed the deadline to pass without taking action, and Graydon said the
IOM is urging an extension through the winter. Pakistan’s ministry of states
and frontier regions has submitted a proposal to the Cabinet to begin the
registration of all undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan, Graydon said.